The FurlongBarrelleaf Chronicles
by Dark Sand
Summary: A collection of short stories about two new Hobbits, Dawn and Ruby, and how they manage in a world not originally theirs...


First story: Drogo and Rufus, Rufus and Drogo.  
  
Disclaimer: We have no idea how those formal disclaimers go, so we'll just say that we don't own the Lord of the Rings. Don't sue us.  
  
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~  
  
Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin were sitting against a tree. Frodo was reading, Sam writing a poem, and Merry and Pippin were smoking. Not far away, they heard a wagon and a low voice humming a song.  
  
As they all got up and went to the cliff before the road, they saw Gandalf.  
  
'Gandalf!' they all shouted and jumped on his wagon.  
  
'My dear Hobbits,' he said as he hugged them all at once.  
  
Suddenly there were a loud BOOM and a muffled 'Ouch!' to be heard and the carriage shook a little.  
  
'What was that?' asked Sam.  
  
~  
  
'Run D, quick!'  
  
'I'm running already!' Dawn said, breathing heavily. As she looked over her shoulder, she saw two large dogs chasing them. She screamed loudly.  
  
'What?' asked Ruby and looked back also. 'Aah!! Run faster!' She poked Dawn to speed up.  
  
'I'm running as fast as I can! I have a pillow for a stomach remember?'  
  
'Give it to me then!'  
  
'The pillow?'  
  
'No you idiot! The food!'  
  
'Oh. Here.' Dawn stretched out her hand to give Ruby the basket. Just then, she saw the cliff. She stopped just in time. Ruby, who had on a way too big pair of pants, tripped over a piece of fabric, bumped into Dawn and took her with her in her fall.  
  
But to the amazement of both the girls, they did not fall on the ground. In stead, they landed in the back of a carriage with a loud 'boom'.  
  
'Ouch!'  
  
'Shhh be quiet D!'  
  
As they waited for any sound, the wagon started moving again.  
  
'Oh this is just great! How are we gonna get out now?' Dawn hissed angrily at Ruby.  
  
'Shh! We'll wait for the wagon to stop and then we'll get out,' Ruby replied in, what she thought, was a silent enough voice to not be heard by the people on the carriage.  
  
She was right about the greater part of the company, for they hadn't heard, but Gandalf hàd heard. He stopped the wagon.  
  
'What are you doing?' asked Pippin, giving words to the thoughts of all the four Hobbits.  
  
'Well, my dear mister Took, I have stopped the wagon. Now,' Gandalf continued, with one look that stopped Pippin from asking further, 'we'll wait and see what will come out of this wagon.'  
  
'Hey D,' Ruby whispered. 'I think they're gone.' She began to move.  
  
Outside the wagon, Gandalf whispered: 'Did you hear that?'  
  
'What is it?' asked Merry.  
  
'We're about to find out now, aren't we? Now let's step off the wagon.' After a while they suddenly saw some movement from inside the wagon. And they could clearly make out voices arguing.  
  
'Ouch!'  
  
'Be quiet!'  
  
'You're hurting me!'  
  
'No I'm not!'  
  
'What's this then?'  
  
'A... a.... Well not me, I'm here!'  
  
'Oh whoops...'  
  
'Watch out!'  
  
'Wha... Aaaaaah!!!!'  
  
With a bang Dawn fell to the ground. Ruby managed to struggle herself halfway out of the wagon. 'Shhh!' she said with one finger on her lips and with the other resting on a large round fire-cracker. The fire-cracker suddenly began to roll away and then Ruby lost her balance as well and fell right next to where Dawn was standing. The rocket landed on top of her.  
  
'Get it off, get it off,' she screamed.  
  
'Now, now sweet pie. No screaming, you told me so!' Dawn said with a big grin.  
  
'Sweet pie my arse. Just get it off, will ya?'  
  
'Sure sure.'  
  
With a big struggle and a lot of pushing and pulling, they got the fire- cracker off Ruby and back into the wagon.  
  
'Well, that went very well!' Ruby said, wiping her sleeves clean.  
  
'Yeah,' Dawn replied,' it didn't even take half an hour!'  
  
'Let's be on our way then.'  
  
Cleaning themselves, the two Hobbit girls started walking off.  
  
'Hold it right there,' Gandalf said, grabbing the two young Hobbits by the suspenders.  
  
Dawn and Ruby felt they were in trouble. As they slowly turned their heads around, they saw the grim face of an old man. They screamed and tried to run away. Unfortunately they forgot one tiny detail.  
  
'Um, D? I've got the strangest idea that we're not moving.' Ruby stammered.  
  
'Oh you've got it too! Hey, I know...' Dawn's face cleared up as she figured out what could be stopping them.  
  
'... the big guy's still holding us!'  
  
With a very successfully suppressed smile, Gandalf lifted the two Hobbits from the ground and gazed at them with a stern face. Terror took hold of Dawn and Ruby as they realized how tall the man before them was. They began to stutter simultaneously.  
  
'We didn't do it! We're innocent! It wasn't us! See, nothing! Really! Honest!' And so on.  
  
Gandalf was able to maintain looking sternly at the Hobbits before him. Meanwhile, Merry and Pippin were practically rolling over the ground with laughter. This had happened so often to them, and now they were finally able to witness it.  
  
'What didn't you do, if I may ask?' asked Gandalf.  
  
Eager to make the big man look a little less frightening, Dawn started talking right away. 'Well, we st-' She was cut off by Ruby, who hit her hard in the side.  
  
'You have to let us down first, or we won't tell!' she said, sounding like a know-it-all.  
  
It seemed that only then did Dawn realize that her feet were hanging a few feet above the ground. All the colour drained from her face and was replaced by some pale shade of green. Luckily for her Gandalf was in one of his good moods and he let them down on the ground again. It took Dawn a few moments to recover, but as soon as her cheeks had some colour again, Gandalf asked: 'Well, first things first. What are your names?'  
  
Relieved by this easy question, Dawn and Ruby started talking. They said: 'Well, I'm Ru-' and 'Well, I'm D-' at the same time, and then both stopped the other from saying too much at the same time by hitting her in the side with her elbow. 'Ah, euh, sh-he's uh ... uh he's Rufus!' said Dawn in a lower voice than before while Ruby said: 'Well, erm ... uh he, she's Dro- he's Drogo!'  
  
The two girls looked at each other in silent thanks for the male names the other gave her.  
  
'Yeah, yes, that's it – uh, me! That's me I'm Drogo. Drogo is my name because...' said Dawn as if she were afraid the others hadn't believed them when they'd first heard the name, and also as if to 'taste' it to herself. Ruby thought quickly and said in a loud voice: 'Drogo! I'll do the talking!' and turning back to Gandalf, she continued: 'Well, we are, as you might have noticed, Rufus and Drogo, at your service.' They both bowed low.  
  
'My father's name was Drogo,' said Frodo, and Dawn stuttered: 'Hè hè, is – uh, is that so? Hè hè, what a, a coincidence ... hè hè,' scratching the back of her head and with her voice falling from high to low.  
  
'Yes it is, isn't it?' Frodo said, looking weirdly at Dawn.  
  
'And do you have last names, to go with the nice first ones?' Gandalf interrupted them and Dawn and Ruby each felt uncomfortable under the impression that he knew something.  
  
'Well, I'm Rufus Barrelleaf and this here is my friend Drogo Furlong,' answered Ruby.  
  
'Ah, Barrelleaf and Furlong. I see,' said Gandalf. In the ears of Ruby and Dawn he sounded evil. At least they were scared of him.  
  
'And may we know how you call yourselves, now that you know who we are?' Ruby said quickly, in the hope of bringing the tall man to another thought and stop being so intimidating.  
  
'These four lovely Hobbits at my side are Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee, Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took,' Gandalf said, and the Hobbits each bowed low as their names were spoken. 'And you may call me Gandalf,' he ended.  
  
'Very pleased to meet you, though the circumstances could have been better,' said Ruby.  
  
'I agree with you on that point. But may I know what exactly were your circumstances?' Gandalf didn't let off his sly questions.  
  
'Uhm, well – uh ... we – uh, well, we're on this journey, and – uhm, well, you know us landing in your carriage and all ...' Ruby answered nervously. She felt the sweat drops forming on her forehead. If she didn't make up something really quick, the truth was going to come out, and then she and Dawn would be in deep trouble.  
  
For a brief moment, Gandalf could not suppress his smile. The Hobbits before him didn't look at ease at all, and Gandalf had a good theory why. And now that he knew their last names, he could look it up.  
  
'Yes, I've been wondering, how did you get there?' 'There was this loud bang! and we were really really scared, so we ran away, but apparently we passed some wild dog's territory, so he came after us, and then we ran away, but then the ground ended, so we had to jump. And now we're here,' Dawn ended her quickly-blurted-out-story. Apparently she'd realized their position and had come up with a story. She looked at Ruby with a look on her face saying: 'I'm sorry, this was the best I could do on such short notice'. Ruby turned back to Gandalf and said: 'Yes, what my friend Drogo said.'  
  
Dawn added: 'Yes, it's not like we were being chased by some farm-' she was cut off again by Ruby with a stomp in her side.  
  
Gandalf looked thoughtfully from Ruby to Dawn and back to Ruby. 'I see. And what about this journey?'  
  
'Well, we're in the middle of one,' said Ruby matter-of-factly. At that moment Dawn's stomach made a rumbling noise. 'Eh, sorry. I guess I must be hungry,' she apologised.  
  
'Well, then, can we go to Crickhollow to feed these two hungry travelers, Frodo?' Gandalf asked, turning to Frodo. He wanted to find out some more about these two strange Hobbits.  
  
'Yes of course Gandalf. As a matter of fact I was getting hungry myself,' Frodo replied.  
  
Without any more words, but with a few suspicious look from Sam, the company climbed onto the wagon, and Ruby and Dawn also hopped on. Well, at least, Ruby did.  
  
As Dawn tried to jump up, she felt the pillow under her vest slip down, so she had to grab it with both arms. She fell back on the ground and was forced to run alongside of the carriage, desperately clutching the pillow that was supposed to be her stomach.  
  
'Could you stop the wagon please?' Dawn puffed, not thinking about her high voice when calling out.  
  
'Drogo! Be quiet!! Ehm, Mr. Gandalf sir? Could you stop the wagon please? My friend Drogo isn't on it.' Ruby said in a very low voice as if to demonstrate to Dawn how they should use their voices.  
  
Gandalf hummed irritably, but did stop the wagon. Dawn pretended to stumble and she fell flat on her face. When she got up, she made sure the pillow was neatly back under her vest again.  
  
'Well that was a pretty clever thing to do,' Ruby said, mocking Dawn.  
  
'Yeah? You try and jump up with a large pi-'  
  
'Stomach!' Ruby yelled frantically, before Dawn could finish her sentence and say: 'pillow'. They had to hide the fact that they were female, or they'd get caught and would have to go back home.  
  
Dawn got the point, but was still irritated by Ruby, who wasn't exhausted like she was, and still dared to make fun of her.  
  
'Do you want to trade?' she said in the lowest voice she could muster.  
  
'No! I would never want to be a fat pig like you!' Ruby replied, insulting Dawn and not even falling out of character.  
  
'Why, you – ' Dawn yelled and jumped up the vehicle so suddenly that Ruby stumbled backwards and fell on her back, with her feet up in the air. She knocked Gandalf's hat off in the process.  
  
When Dawn and Ruby had gotten up so far that they could see what happened, their faces drained of all colour and the 'oops, sorry' was hanging in the air so thickly that they could almost see it.  
  
Before anyone said anything, the two Hobbit lassies had jumped off the wagon and were already cleaning Gandalf's hat. The others couldn't hear what exactly they were saying because they were brabbling apologies at the same time, but the essence of their message was clear enough.  
  
'Here you go mister Gandalf, sir, we're terribly sorry, sir, we didn't mean to, humblest apologies...' Ruby brabbled some more, giving the hat back to the big man. Again, Gandalf hummed irritably and gave them a stern look.  
  
With bending shoulders and tip-toeing, as if trying not to be noticed anymore, Dawn and Ruby climbed back onto the wagon, this time without any accidents on both sides.  
  
Gandalf clicked his tongue and the horse started moving again.  
  
Though everyone was silent, to their own thoughts, it seemed that Dawn and Ruby were having an entire conversation with only looks, small movements, and an occasional 'hum'.  
  
By the time they reached Crickhollow, they seemed to have worked it out. When they got off the wagon, Dawn's pillow almost slipped away from under her vest again, but she prevented that from happening by pretending to fall again, this time on top of Ruby, who helped her push the pillow back on its place before they were ready to stand up again.  
  
The rest of the company had already walked inside, and Ruby couldn't help to hiss angrily at Dawn: 'Why couldn't you just have picked a smaller pillow?'  
  
Dawn returned her icy stare and replied: 'You know as well as I do, that wouldn't have been a good enough disguise! And besides, those way too large clothes of yours aren't that great either! They're what got us in this mess in the first place!'  
  
Ruby couldn't answer to that accusion, because they'd just walked into the hole. She put them to stop and quickly whispered to Dawn: 'They're going to ask questions. I'll do the talking and you just shut up and pay attention. That way we won't get into trouble!'  
  
The only reply she got from Dawn before they stepped into the living room, was a furious glare. 'Here, have a seat!' Frodo said generously. 'I've just sent Sam into the kitchen to make us something to eat, but in the meantime, would you like something to drink?'  
  
They didn't need to answer, because in the moment after Frodo finished his question, Merry and Pippin came walking into the room, carrying a few mugs of beer.  
  
'Ah, beer from the 'Golden Perch', the finest in the East farthing,' Gandalf said and sat down on the couch (which he occupied completely all by himself) with a big sigh of satisfaction.  
  
As the others settled down in separate seats, Merry gave them all a mug. He pushed it in Dawn's hands rather violently, so that some of the beer spilled over her vest. 'Oops, sorry,' he apologized immediately, but Dawn saw the mocking look in his eyes.  
  
The silence that settled upon them was rather uncomfortable.  
  
'So ...' Frodo said.  
  
'So ...' Ruby repeated.  
  
'So ...' Dawn echoed.  
  
Ruby gave Dawn a glare that said: 'don't repeat everything I say!' and Dawn glared back with a look that said: 'make me'. Then Ruby changed her glare into: 'I'm warning you' and Dawn changed her glare in order to reply to Ruby's.  
  
The others in the company watched the silent fight, and they got the impression that the two travelers they'd picked up weren't very smart. In their eyes the little conversation looked quite ridiculous.  
  
Before Dawn and Ruby seemed to have worked it out, Sam came walking in the room, carrying a large plate with food and their 'argument' stopped. Now both their stomachs rumbled very loudly.  
  
'Sounds like you're both hungry,' Sam said merrily. 'Well, have a taste.'  
  
The two girls didn't need that encouragement to start eating like hungry wolves. Everyone watched in amazement. Who could think that a little scrunchy small Hobbit like Rufus could eat so much?  
  
Before they could all sit and eat, the food was gone. Dawn let out a big burp and sat back on her chair with a content sigh. Ruby followed her example and let out an even bigger burp.  
  
'Thank you Sam. That was de- li- cious!' Ruby sighed happily in a deep voice.  
  
'Yup!' Dawn repeated Ruby. This time Ruby didn't glare in her direction.  
  
'Oh .... erm .... I'll-eh, I guess I'll go make something else ...' Sam said a little hesitant.  
  
'Oh .... eh ... heh heh ...' Dawn started.  
  
'We'll make something!' Ruby said quickly, looking at Dawn.  
  
'Yeah! We can cook too!' Dawn added, with big eyes, trying to come across like a very trustworthy person. The two of them scurried off to the kitchen.  
  
But right after they'd left the room, Dawn walked back in again and asked shyly: 'But could anyone please show us where the kitchen is?'  
  
Pippin got up and walked to the kitchen, with Dawn in his footsteps. When they disappeared, Sam spoke up. 'I don't trust them. They're always acting so weird.' On top of that, he didn't like the way the two of them had eaten his famous stew like such barbarians.  
  
'I don't know about you, but I do have the feeling that they're hiding something,' Frodo said.  
  
'Maybe that's because they're from the North Farthing,' Merry suggested. 'I heard that they act differently there.'  
  
Gandalf had his own thoughts about the two strangers, but he kept them as his own and didn't say them aloud.  
  
Suddenly the four of them heard something break and a high-pitched: 'Oh help!'  
  
'Oh no D! Why'd you have to be so clumsy? That teapot was delicate, and you knew it!'  
  
'What?! Drogo, you didn't break – thàt teapot! Oh no, that was Frodo's favourite teapot!' The first voice, Dawn's, started whining. 'Well sorry! How could I know that?'  
  
'You couldn't. But now you've broke it anyway, you'd better do something about it,' Ruby said, sounding very annoyed by Dawn's lack of activity.  
  
Dawn wanted to stick out her tongue, but since that wasn't very manly, she just made a 'Hmpht' sound as indignant as possible.  
  
Pippin hurried to get a broom or something to clean up the shards. While he was away, Dawn poked Ruby in the side. 'I have an idea how we can put off the questioning,' she whispered. 'Be fore we get the food ready, we can take as long a time we want, right? So it could be dark before we're done eating and all. And of course we're v-'  
  
Before she could finish, Pippin came walking back into the kitchen. He looked at the two Hobbits briefly, shook his head, and started swooping the pieces of the broken teapot together. He hadn't really started cleaning the mess when he felt someone take it out of his hands. He looked up and saw the face of Drogo.  
  
'Here, I'll do that for you. You just go back to the living room and relax a little.' Dawn said to Pippin in her low Drogo-voice. Pippin looked at her suspiciously, as if he were afraid that the Hobbit before him would break something again if he would leave the two of them by themselves right now.  
  
'You can go, we'll just make you a dinner without pieces of porcelain mixed in it,' Ruby said in a final tone. Together with Dawn she pushed Pippin out of the kitchen and closed the door.  
  
After have waited a few seconds, Dawn just continued explaining her plan to Ruby. 'Of course we're very tired, so we'll just say that we want to go to sleep, and that way they can't do anything to us. And tomorrow we have plenty of time to make up our final story. Can we go with that?'  
  
'Drogo my friend, I think that is definitely one of your more bright ideas!'  
  
'So we'll go with it?'  
  
'Yes, that seems like the best thing to do, so why not?' Relieved that they knew how they were going to handle things, the two girls started cooking. And they took all their time.  
  
By the time they finally walked into the room, carrying the feast they'd made, the others were completely starved. But they didn't attack the food as Ruby and Dawn had done about one and a half hour before. They ate the food the way good food was supposed to be eaten. And, as known by all Hobbits, the proper way of eating took some time, and was not disturbed by talking. That would only bring the attention to other, less important things and then the whole experience good food could give you would be spoiled.  
  
When they were done, they all sat back relaxing. 'Well, Drogo, Rufus. That was nice. A splendid supper,' said Frodo.  
  
'Why thank you Frodo,' said Ruby.  
  
'But now I'd like to know, what exactly happened to my teapot? I heard it broke.' Frodo continued, suddenly sounding a lot harsher than before.  
  
'We are truly sorry about your teapot,' said Ruby. 'And when we see the time we'll buy you a new one, of course.'  
  
Before there could be anymore conversation, Dawn yawned with her mouth wide open and a lot of sound. Ruby's eyes had started to grow watery also, and the girl felt it was time for them to get going. 'I think we'd better go to bed,' she said with a sleepy voice.  
  
With a big yawn Ruby answered: 'Yes I believe that would be best.' Sam showed them to their room and he provided them with blankets, pajama's and clean clothes.  
  
'Thank you Sam,' Dawn said as he walked back to the living room. Dawn checked one more time if there was really no-one in the hall before she closed the door.  
  
Immediately she started pulling something out from under her vest. Ruby was trying to untie a tight knot on her back. It didn't work.  
  
'Oh Dawn! Why'd you have to tie the knot so tight?' she whined.  
  
'What if I hadn't? If I'd made it just a little less tight, your breasts would have been visible! Now come here, I'll untie it for you.'  
  
With a few experienced twists and turns she untied the knot and Ruby let her shirt fall down again. She inhaled deeply. 'Oh finally! I can breathe again!'  
  
'Yes, good for you. Now could you please help me pull this pillow out and stop my back from aching? This stupid thing only comes out when it's not supposed to!' When Dawn and Ruby were finally done preparing for sleep, they climbed into their beds.  
  
'Uhm, Rubs?' Dawn asked softly.  
  
'What?'  
  
'Could you put out those candles?'  
  
Ruby sighed and got out of bed. When she'd put the candles out and climbed back in, Dawn spoke again.  
  
'Rubs?'  
  
'Yes?'  
  
'Do you think they bought it? I mean that we're boys and stuff?'  
  
'I don't know Dawn.'  
  
'Oh, ok.'  
  
Dawn turned over and pulled up her blanket. She rolled up like a baby and sighed. She closed her eyes, but could relax.  
  
'Ruby?' she said again.  
  
'Hm?'  
  
'Could you light one candle please? I'm afraid of the dark.'  
  
Sighing Ruby got out of her bed again, lighted one candle, and climbed back in again. She closed her eyes, but was disturbed by Dawn once again.  
  
'Hey Ruby?'  
  
'Yeah.'  
  
'You know I was really irritated with you today.'  
  
'Oh?' Ruby would have loved to show Dawn how irritated she was with her right now.  
  
'Yeah I mean it! If you were going to tell me to shut up one more time I was going to throttle you!'  
  
'Yeah I know, but we can't have two different stories you know, they'd make us go back home.'  
  
At the thought of going back home, Dawn got quiet. She didn't want to go home just yet. And she didn't want to think about it either. But something made her brake the silence again.  
  
'Ruby?'  
  
'What now?'  
  
'Uhm, no nothing, I forgot.'  
  
'Go to sleep Dawn.'  
  
With a last acknowledging grunt from Dawn the silence settled upon them. But again, Dawn broke it.  
  
'Ruby?'  
  
'Oh put a sock in it! I'm tired!'  
  
'But I remembered what I was going to say.'  
  
'Yeah?'  
  
'Yeah. Do you like that Merry guy?'  
  
'Why?'  
  
'Because I DON'T! And I'd have liked to hear that you didn't like him either and also thought that he is an egocentrical, stupid and just plainly annoying guy!' With that, Dawn rolled over again, so that Ruby was facing her back.  
  
But now that Dawn had asked Ruby that question, Ruby didn't feel like sleeping at all anymore. Her friend had awoken a question in her and now she wanted to find the answer. Dìd she like that Merry guy?  
  
Well, she liked the looks of him anyway. And she'd liked the way that he'd thrown the beer over Dawn, but maybe that was because she was really annoyed with her at the time.  
  
Ok, sure, the outside layer of this guy seemed tough enough, but Ruby suspected that underneath the act he played (and that act was probably to impress the two new Hobbits he'd just met) Merry was a funny, intelligent and caring guy, and she –  
  
'Ruby?'  
  
'WHAT?!' Ruby barked, disturbed out of her thoughts.  
  
'Could you please shut up? I can't sleep when you're mumbling to yourself.'  
  
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~  
  
And here ended the first part of our Hobbit fanfic! We hope you enjoyed.  
  
How long exactly we're gonna keep going on with writing stories about Dawn and Ruby, depends greatly on you. The more reactions (hopefully positive)  
we get, the longer we'll keep going.  
  
We just want to say that, although we do not own LotR, we do consider the two fictional characters Dawn Furlong and Ruby Barrelleaf to be ours. If you wish to use them for anything yourself, please ask us first. Thank you.  
  
We'll let you know as soon as #2 comes out! 


End file.
